This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project describes an innovative combinatorial approach to the discovery of new electrocatalysts for electrochemical ozone generation. Ozone is increasingly being used in water treatment, as a sanitizing agent in the food industry and is preferred over chlorine and its derivatives. Electrochemical ozone generation, where ozone is generated by electrolysis of water, can potentially offer several cost and process advantages over the conventional electrical discharge methods of ozone generation. However, existing methods for generating ozone electrochemically use electrodes, which offer low Faradaic (i.e., current) efficiencies and have limited materials stability. In Phase I, ozone electrocatalysts were screened using a combinatorial approach, and two novel electrocatalysts for ozone formation were identified. A new rapid screening approach was also devised and will be used to evaluate focussed combinatorial arrays in Phase II. Phase II will identify the precise stoichiometries of the new ozone electrocatalysts using the techniques pioneered in Phase I. The catalysts will then be synthesized on a macro scale and evaluated in ozone cells using existing ozone electrocatalysts as a benchmark.
The catalysts identified during this project will enable a more cost-effective generation of ozone with applications in municipal water treatment, point-of-entry and point-of-use water treatment, food sanitation, medical waste treatment and medical sterilization. Ozone could also be utilized in the chemical industry as a replacement for chlorine in a variety of processes, e.g. paper and pulp bleaching.